We’ve all heard the phrase that the best camera is the one you have on you, and now with the Panasonic CM1, that could finally be true. It’s possible to have a smartphone that takes amazing pictures. With a 1-inch sensor, Leica lens and some useful software tools, this is easily the best camera setup ever built into an Android device.

Often when referring to your smartphone, it is said that “the best camera is the one you have with you”. In other words, the camera on your smartphone, in your pocket, is better than the DSLR you’ve got sat on a shelf at home. Despite the rise of quality lenses and sensors, using a smartphone still isn’t quite as good a ‘proper’ camera. There have always been compromises. At least, there have been until now.

Panasonic’s CM1 may be thicker than your average phone, but it’s easily pocketable, not too uncomfortable to hold and has an epic 20MP camera with 1-inch sensor, a 6-element Leica lens, manual controls and a maximum aperture of f/2.8. What does that mean for image quality?

Panasonic showed off its Android-based digital compact camera at CES earlier this year, despite officially announcing it in the September previous. With it being such an interesting device in a form factor similar to the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom, I felt I should at least try and get hold of one to feature here, and give my thoughts on the phone-come-smartphone. Although I wanted to unbox it and give my first impressions, I was more interested in seeing how the camera performs. If it’s as good as it looks and sounds, this could be the perfect device for those more interested in photography than making phone calls and taking selfies… expand full story